A CROWDED STEAMER. 195 



merciful Providence so ordered it, that we escaped entirely 

 unharmed the perils of sickness and of the sea, and as our 

 steamer had a clear bill of health, we were saved from numbering 

 among our experiences, a practical acquaintance with the inde- 

 scribable attractions of the quarantine system in southern ports 

 in very warm weather. 



About four weeks afterwards we took passage in the screw 

 steamer City of Austin, at Fernandina, for Xew York. She had 

 Just arrived from Nassau with a large number of joassengers, in- 

 cluding Mr. Morton, the proprietor of the Eoyal Victoria Hotel, 

 together Avith his principal assistants. The children of the 

 American Consul were also on board, and Ave learned that the 

 Consul and his Avife designed to follow them so soon as his official 

 duties Avould admit of his leaving. ^Ye had also the Episcopal 

 Bishop and his children. The Bishop's Avife Avas one of the vic- 

 tims of the fever, and Ave had no doubt he had left Nassau because 

 he Avas not Avilling to incur the hazards incident to a residence 

 there during the Avarm and Avet season of the year. We could 

 not but deeply sympathise with him in his great affliction, and 

 half regret that we had alloAved ourselves to be amused at the 

 high sounding titles Avhich, upon his arrival the year previous, 

 helped so much to inspire the Bahamians Avith reverence, if not 

 Avith aAve. Upon ship-board there Avere certain i^ecnliarities in 

 his every day costume, as striking as a Chinaman's pig-tail, Avhich 

 Avere Avell calculated to attract attention. They Avcre strongly 

 suggestive of the fact that the man AA-hom they adorned Avas not 

 an ordinary individual. But in the shadoAv of his great bereave- 

 ment, surrounded, as he Avas, Avith his pretty but motherless little 

 ones, we Avere not disposed to unfavorably criticise or iuAvardly 

 smile at the peculiarities of his costume. AYe did not make the 

 Bishop's acquaintance, buthcAvas dignified Avithout seeming vain 

 and conceited, and his intelligent, amiable and good uatured 

 countenance quite prepossessed us in his favor. 



